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Chicago—Republican State Senator Dave Syverson, Rockford, IL, is calling for an extension of the state’s 67% “temporary” state income tax increase that is set to roll back to 3.75% on January 1, 2015. According to the president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA), more Republicans may back such a measure now that the election is over.
“Sen. Syverson is exactly what’s wrong with Illinois’ politics,” said Jim Tobin, TUA president. “The vast majority of Illinois legislators never consider spending cuts or government reform.”
“We can expect more of Illinois’ entrenched legislators to jump on the Syverson bandwagon now that the election is over.”
“Illinois is in the worst financial shape of any state in the nation, and yet our legislators can’t roll up their sleeves and solve problems rather than forcing taxpayers to take another hit in their wallets.”
“There are countless opportunities to cut expenses and waste while stimulating job growth by relaxing regulations and lowering taxes that make Illinois unfriendly to business and entrepreneurs.”
“And of course, the single biggest blood-sucking program in the state, government pensions, remain unchanged and continue to suck the life out of taxpayers who don’t flee the state’s burdensome taxes and regulations.”
“The lion’s share of the estimated $31 billion in additional wealth stolen from Illinois taxpayers by the 67% income tax surcharge has gone to fund the lavish, gold-plated pensions of government retirees.”
“The entire legislature is playing politics with the taxpayers of Illinois. The Democrat Machine that raised our taxes will now hand over the unbalanced 2015 budget to the Republican governor-elect, Bruce Rauner, who ran on a campaign of allowing the 67% income tax increase to expire over the next four years.”
“Even though that infamous, eleventh-hour, lame-duck income tax increase was passed without a single Republican vote, Republicans now are inclined to push for keeping the income tax increase.”
“Illinois government should fix what’s broken in Springfield and get its hands out of our wallets. It is mathematically impossible to tax our way out of the problem we have.”
“For those who thought electing a Republican governor would solve our problems, there is St. Sen. Dave Syverson, who is possibly the first of many Republicans who think the only way out of an unbalanced budget is to raise taxes.”
“Anybody with even a basic understanding of simple math can see that the government pensions must be fixed.”
“What legislators like Syverson always forget is that if the state is hurting, so are the taxpayers who fund these clowns. Syverson, and other bureaucrats who support state tax increases, need to learn that the same old tax-and-spend policies can’t continue in Illinois – not unless we want to be the first state to go bankrupt.”
View our flyer for recent election victories and press
Chicago – Taxpayers United of America (TUA) helped local activists defeat Home Rule referenda in 5 out of 6 communities. This brings our total Illinois Home Rule referenda victories to 206! We were also successful in defeating 2 of 3 countywide sales tax battles, bringing the total to 205 victories against tax increases! That’s 411 victories for taxpayers since 1977!
“Taxpayers soundly beat 7 out of 9 of these measures and sent a Republican Governor to Springfield. I’d say we’ve had enough of the status quo of the government treating taxpayers like an ATM,” stated Jim Tobin, president of TUA.
“Government bureaucrats always try to keep taxpayers in the dark about what Home Rule really means to them – higher taxes that drive consumers away. They still don’t let opposition voices speak at their ‘educational’ sessions. But as shown in Barrington, Crestwood, Lynwood, Matteson, and Lake Zurich, we have learned how to crush them at the polls!”
“Government bureaucrats in Edwards, Wayne, and White Counties expected taxpayers to approve a new 1% sales tax to fund buildings and maintenance of government schools. Taxpayers in Wayne and Edwards sent a clear message that they pump enough money into the government schools that return substandard results.”
Click the links below for our successful Vote No flyers opposing Home Rule and Sales Tax Increases:
· 5 Village Governments Want Taxpayers to Throw Away Their Right to Vote on Property Tax Increases
· 3 Illinois Counties Seek to Gouge Taxpayers With New 1% Sales Tax
“With our help, taxpayers have learned that 80% of local taxes go to fund salaries and pensions of the over-staffed, inefficient, juggernaut government. No matter how loudly the bureaucrats yell, we know that it’s not ‘for the children.’”
“Taxpayers from across the country have been calling and emailing us daily to help stop new, bigger, and existing taxes. Taxpayers are beginning to revolt. When we publish names and amounts showing that 11,054 Illinois government retirees are getting more than $100,000 and 78,000 are getting more than $50,000 in taxpayer funded pensions, taxpayers refuse to take any more pay cuts in the form of more insidious taxation.”
“We need to continue this trend of defeating and repealing taxes and taxing authorities to return prosperity and financial security to taxpayers who are done sacrificing for the sake of government bureaucrats.”
***The original version of this news release reported the repeal of Home Rule in West Frankfort, IL, however, the vote totals reported by the government following the election were inaccurate. The release has been edited to reflect this change.
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Following is media coverage for Taxpayers United of America.
On October 15th, the Breeze Courier Online, based in Taylorville, Illinois and Christian County’s only daily, reported on TUA’s efforts to defeat home rule referenda on the November 4th ballot in the five suburban-Chicago villages of Barrington, Lake Zurich, Lynwood, Crestwood, and Matteson on November 4th.
On October 22nd, Carbondale’s The Southern Illinoisan published a letter to the editor in their Voice of the Reader section that specifically mentioned the longtime work of our founder and president, Jim Tobin, and his many decades of fighting against the unlimited taxing authority of Home Rule in Illinois, as well as the activism of Robert Redfern of the Illinois Forum.
Tobin was then interviewed on October 29th by the New York Times bestselling author of twelve books, senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and libertarian polymath, historian Tom Woods, for his radio show and podcast, The Tom Woods Show. They discussed tax revolts, the late economist Murray Rothbard, and upcoming TUA government pension seminars in 2015.
This interview was especially fantastic for both Tobin’s terrific and lively conversation with Tom on the show, as well as the fact that Tom’s listenership includes more than sixty-thousand Facebook subscribers, nearly thirty-thousand Twitter followers, plus numerous internet and terrestrial radio stations which air his weekly interviews. Since the interview aired last week, TUA has already been contacted by half a dozen activists across the country inquiring about our work, how to fight back against ever-expanding government and crippling taxation, and what we could do to assist them where they live.
More interviews are in the works and we hope to garner more press in the coming days after the election. We’re opposing five referenda for Home Rule status and supporting repeal in one village, as well as opposing three sales tax increases.
